Some of the designers who made it happen

Adi Bustaman was incredible to work with. Cooperative and creative. I couldn't be more pleased with the outcome.

- johnao9

Finalist
- GraphixArt

He did a great job in a very competitive contest. He responds to feedback well and was very helpful after the contest at handover time!
He has my full recommendation!

- Tule_red

Finalist
- Pagatana

reacts really fast, is flexible, and has a huge flexibility what I like a lot

- Anonymous

Finalist
- NEGraphics&Designs

A great job..the design I chose was completely different than any other. Great creative. I am really happy with everything.

- Bernie Griffiths

Finalist
- S!M

Thank you so much for your creative design and expertise! I appreciated your quick responses and updates. Your design is better than anything I could have imagined! You helped make this daunting process easy and enjoyable!

- kristin Q

Finalist
- WarungGrafis

Great job, easy to work with A++

- KAAMPLS

How Andrew53 started their book cover journey

Who are you known as?

July Publishing (project for our client)

What industry do you think your business is most related to?

Cleaning & Maintenance

Tell us a bit about who you are and the people you reach

We primarily engage in large contracts ($100,000+) for cleaning services to high-security U.S. government agencies and government contractors; however, we also have some non-government commercial cleaning contracts, with large management companies, as well.

What inspires you and how do you envision the design for your business?

We are producing a short book that tells the history of our family-owned company. The purpose of the book will be to (a) tell this four-decade history, (b) convey the lessons we've learned in the process of building our multi-million-dollar business, and (c) commemorate our anniversary. The target audience is existing and prospective clientele (to help them connect with our unique story) and other entrepreneurs who are building a family business (who may learn from our experience). We are unique in that our business is still 100% family owned, highly successful, and now involving the third generation of our family. (Only 12% of family-owned businesses succeed into the third generation.)

The title of the book is *Family Business Matters: The True Story of a Family Business Defying the Odds." (See other info about subtitle option.) What we are looking for is more GREAT CONCEPT than finished product. We realize this is a difficult concept to convey visually -- so we're more interested in seeing excellent ideas than polished cover designs.

This book will go through print-on-demand, so we need a trim size of between 5" by 8" and 6" by 9" (portrait orientation only). Be sure to leave room in the bottom-right corner of the back cover (approx. 1.5" tall by 2.5" wide) for the bar code. It doesn't have to be blank or white, but it can't contain any important elements or they will be covered.

If your concept requires work on the spine or back cover to be complete and effective, go for it -- however, we'd rather see multiple concepts that show an impressive front cover that we can expand into the spine and back.

We are not attached to our company colors being used on the cover, but if you want to incorporate them, they are maroon (CMYK 26/100/83/24) and gold (CMYK 3/10/84/0). We also do not plan on using our logo on the front cover, so no need to concern yourself with that.

While we realize we aren't giving a significant amount of direction, we hope this will also allow you a lot of freedom to be creative. But of course, if you have any questions, please let us know.

Other notes

Remember, a killer concept will beat out a perfected finished cover that makes us yawn. We have the capability to technically lay out and produce the cover -- we're just missing the all-important design inspiration we hope you can provide. This is why we're going a little lower on the prize; this is more of a concepting contest than an expectation of full design execution.

Also, we generally think photography will not work for the cover. Many business books do not use cover photography because it often looks generic; we don't want this to look like it came from a design mill. However, if photography is essential to your concept, then feel free to place in stock FPO images to convey your vision. Just be sure that you have access to the high-res equivalents or similar.

Lastly, while we have decided on the title, we are not firm on the subtitle. So, if you want to propose an alternate subtitle that better matches your concept/vision, you are welcome to do so.